Rick Stein Shops and Restaurants Worldwide

Rick Stein is a UK celebrity chef, who systematically increased his cookery and restaurant empire in Padstow, Cornwall, along with a number of shops ... and is now to be found in even more towns - and even continents - as he's moved to Australia and is continuing to do build great businesses at home and abroad.

At home used to mean Padstow, Cornwall, but Rick Stein's home is currently in Australia and he's often between his two bases to meet the needs of his global gourmet empire!

It all started in 1974 when he opened his first restaurant, and just 10 years later he started to win awards for his cooking and his restaurants. He changed a quiet, picturesque, Cornish fishing village into a dot on the worldwide gastronomy map when his fame followed him home and visitors turned up in their droves to eat at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant, followed by attending his Seafood Cookery School, lunching at Rick Stein's Cafe or Rick Stein's Fish & Chip shop, taking home fresh and exciting ingredients from Rick Stein's Deli to cook with at home ... and that wasn't the end of it.

With four restaurants and three shops in Padstow, Rick Stein's goods are also available through his online shop ... then he started setting up businesses in other popular Cornish resorts, as well as in Australia.

Padstow is where Rick Stein started his empire, which now extends to four restaurants/places to dine out in Cornwall and three shops.

But beyond that, you can also stay at Rick Stein's accommodation. There are six choices, each with its own charm and style, designed by Jill Stein Interior Designs:

• The Seafood Restaurant: 16 rooms above the restaurant, overlooking Padstow Harbour. The Seafood Restaurant was extended in early 2008, to include a couple of extra rooms to cope with high demand. On offer is Bed & Breakfast, on a "per room" basis, for two sharing. Prices from £135-£270/night. Dogs welcome (at £20/night). There are deals to be had out of season.
• St Petroc's Hotel: 10 rooms, with varying views. On offer is Bed & Breakfast, on a "per room" basis, for two sharing. Prices from £135-£270/night. Dogs welcome (at £20/night). Out of season deals are available.
• St Edmunds House: Opened first in 2001, St Edmunds House has 6 rooms, with views across the Camel Estuary. On offer is Bed & Breakfast, with a Full English, or Continental Breakfast being served in the Seafood Restaurant. The tariff is £270/night. No dogs.
• Rick Stein's Cafe: 3 rooms above the cafe. No picturesque views, just views over the back alleys of Padstow (quaint, but not award-winning!). On offer is Bed & Breakfast, on a "per room" basis, for two sharing. Breakfast is served either in the Cafe, or in the Courtyard garden. Prices are £90-135/night. Dogs welcome.
• Bryn Cottage: This is a 1-bed cottage, added to the accommodation empire in 2006, and the rate includes breakfast. At £300, this is the two people rate, with no discounts for single occupancy. No dogs.
• Prospect House: Opened in 2007, there are 4 rooms at Prospect House - two rooms have disabled access. Tariff is from £210-230/night, for two sharing. On offer is Bed & Breakfast, with views over the old town and estuary.

Rick Stein is opening a new restaurant on Fistral Beach, Newquay In the spring of 2015. Based right on the edge of the beach, overlooking the full sea view, this will be a great venue for those looking for a meal with a view!

Address: Fistral Beach, Newquay, Cornwall, England, TR7 1HY

Rick Stein's Porthleven restaurant is on the south coast of Cornwall and opened in November 2014 - a great place to eat when there's stormy weather as you can follow up your meal with a bracing walk along the harbour to watch gigantic waves crashing over the quay.

Address: Porthleven Harbour, near Helston, Cornwall, TR13 9JS

Winchester is an inland town in the southern county of Hampshire. Rick Stein opened his restaurant in Winchester in 2014 as his first restaurant outside of Cornwall. The Executive Chef in charge of this restaurant is Rick Stein's son Jack Stein.

The location is the restaurant known as Union Jacks, one of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants.

Address: 7-8 High Street, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 9JK

You can sign up for a choice of 1-day or 2-day seafood cookery courses at Rick Stein's Seafood Cookery School in Padstow.

Each seafood cookery course focusses on differerent cuisines and different books written by Rick Stein. For example:

• Cooking from Far Eastern Odyssey: a one day course (one of Rick Stein's TV series)
• Original Fish and Shellfish Cookery: a one day course, or a two day course
• French Fish Cookery: a one day course
• Cooking from French Odyssey (one of Rick Stein's TV Series)
• Tapas, Anti-Pasti and Mezze: a one day course
• Fish Market: a one day course
• Shellfish: a one day course
• Friends for Dinner: a two day course
• Children's Cookery
• Christmas Seafood Cookery Course
• Summer Cooking
• Japanese Sashimi and Sushi
• Italian Fish Cookery
• Cooking from Mediterranean Escapes (one of Rick Stein's TV Series)
  

What I found unique about the seafood cookery courses is there are no gaps - there is literally a course going on every day of the week, month ... almost every day of the year, making it easy to fit your chosen course into your lifestyle and needs. The most popular seafood cookery course is the Original Fish and Shellfish Cookery course, running 3-4x a week.

Some courses are residential, some are non-residential. If they are non-residential, you can opt to stay in one of Rick Stein's hotel rooms, or find your own local accommodation.

Prices range from £185 for a one day, non-residential course, to £760 for a two-day residential course. Late availability bookings can attract a 20% discount... if you can take the risk your chosen course will still be available, or if you're quite flexible about when you want to attend.

With Rick Stein's pedigree as a celebrity chef, combined with the UK press' acclaims of excellence, these courses are very popular and often fully booked months in advance.

St Merryn is a small village a few miles out of Padstow on the north Cornish coast. From St Merryn, a common roadsign you see promotes "Seven Bays for Seven Days", indicating that if you stay there for a week you can go to a different beach every day.

The Cornish Arms pub in St Merryn has been run by Rick Stein and his business partner Jill Stein since 2009. Running the Cornish Arms as tenants, not owners, this new partnership with St Austell Brewery was a new direction for the successful food multi-millionaires.

The food you'll find at The Cornish Arms, is more in-keeping with traditional pub food, except all produce will be fresh and nothing will be frozen or bought in. You can expect dishes such as scampi and chips, or Steak and Tribute Ale Pie with chips. There are also seasonal and daily specials such as asparagus, or Cornish sardines. Thus blending pub food with gastronomic delights at a more affordable price for the masses than booking into the more hedonistic Seafood Restaurant in Padstow.

One word of warning - The Cornish Arms was always a popular pub, even before Rick and Jill Stein took over, so expect it now to be mobbed at peak times.

In 2010 Rick Stein surprised a lot of people when he opened up a new Rick Stein's Fish & Chip shop in Falmouth, Cornwall.

Like Padstow on the north Cornwall coast, Falmouth has a history with sea-farers, although Falmouth is one of the deepest and largest natural harbours in the world and so has been becoming more popular each year with visiting cruise liners. With each berthing ship, there are literally thousands of tourists in the town for one day, looking for good experiences, so Rick Stein's Fish & Chip shop on the newly revamped harbour area was a good strategy.

The fish & chip restaurant features a new charcoal oven, offering roasted fish.

With his Seafood Bar doing well in Padstow, Rick Stein's opened a Seafood Bar upstairs above the fish and chip shop too, serving Fal oysters and Cornish oysters and Cornish crab, prawns, salmon and scallops.  No booking is required

Opening Hours: Daily from 12pm to 10pm for takeaway.
The restaurant is open at lunchtime from 12pm-2.30pm and for dinner from 5pm-10pm

Again, on Discovery Quay, Rick Stein's opened another deli, serving freshly caught fish to the public. Here you'll find the most mouth-watering display of deli produce probably in the whole of Cornwall, or even the South West.  From home-made mayonnaise to locally produced sausages from award-winning Tywardreath Butchers. There's also the full range of Rick Stein's branded goods for sale, from his batter mix to jams/chutneys and even his books and DVDs. Pick up a Rick Stein branded apron, or simply take ownership of a few swift bottles of Chalky's own Beer.

Bread, patisseries and cakes are all produced at Stein's bakery in Padstow, so they're fresh, but not produced on the premises in Falmouth.

Opening Hours: Daily from 10am-5pm (4pm on Sundays)

Yes, I kid you not. There is even Rick Stein beer.

Launched in June 2007 and brewed by Sharp's Brewery, a Cornish brewery based across the water from Padstow in Rock, Rick Stein created some beers named after his dear, beloved pet dog Chalky (RIP).Chalky passed away in January 2007, so he missed out on the launch of his own beer. Chalky was a TV celebrity in his own right as he accompanied Rick Stein on many a boat trip fishing for seafood in the various TV series'. I remember one wonderful episode when Chalky, normally a very mild-mannered dog, took an instant dislike to the cameraman and wouldn't stop barking, so they had to call out another boat to remove him. Aaahhh bless!!

You can buy Chalky's Bite, or Chalky's Bark.

The beers are available across the Stein's empire, even the fish and chip shop in Falmouth stocks them for their fish and chip restaurant.

Chalky's Bite Beer (6.8% abv)

Brewed from a blend of three hops, Cornish barley and wild Cornish fennel, it takes three months for Chalky's Bite Beer to ferment and mature.

Chalky's Bark Beer (4.5% abv)

Using continental hops, this triple fermented beer is blended with ginger.

Update: You can taste Chalky's Bite and Chalky's Bark at the 2010 Cornwall Food and Drink Festival in Events Square Falmouth.  There's an evening of seafood and beer on Saturday September 25th 2010.  Tickets are £15 though, and this is strictly a tickets only event.

Since settling in Australia, Rick Stein's already achieved a lot, expanding his empire in every direction he can.

In October 2009, he has again settled into a harbour-side location and is delivering freshly caught and cooked fish direct to diners' tables at Bannisters Restaurant, Mollymook in New South Wales, Australia (of all places!)

Rick Stein's already repeating his UK success as in August 2010 it was announced that Bannisters had won a gold award for deluxe accommodation, in addition to winning the gold award for a tourism restaurant!

And finally, I think I've reached the end of Rick Stein's current empire, when I tell you that he's involved in a consortium of owners, responsible for Tower Estate Winery in the Hunter Valley area of Australia.

On the estate is a retreat, a Lodge with 12 guest bedrooms and a conference suite.